Toyota Orders Inspection Of Lexus Floormats After Tragic Crash Kills Family Of Four

Those poor people...shouldn't have bought Lexus...

Not the time for stupid jokes.

you obviously haven't had your throttle stick before. When it sticks it provides some resistance, which 9 times out of 10 will cause the operator to apply an excessive force to it which generally tends to pin the gas pedal.

What ?

Even his wife had enough time to call police and the guy haven't tried anything ? He could have bent forward to pull the floormat, tried reaching the brake pedal, killed the engine, put the transmission in neutral (which is doable even with an auto trans) or even tried that thing they called a handbrake

I mean, if the wife had enough time to make a phone call, the driver should have had enough time to try something.

true. but this was a lexus driver. he was likely 92 years old and didn't know how to drive. sad. very sad.

Yes. Somthing dosent make sence here. Especially since the driver was a CHP officer. He should have been able to handle the stress of an emergency.

Honestly I've been in this situation (in a mazda) and where at first my responce was "Holy S!@t" it only took me another second to step on the brake then when that didnt work I threw the car in nuetral. That worked...even though I almost blew up the engine trying to coast over to the side of the road.

My thought is while I'm just an ordinary guy with my wife and daughter in the car...I have no special training in emergency vehicle situations... and I can stop my vehicle, how does a CHP officer not react in enough time to prevent a car from reaching 120mph? Also even if the brakes cant completly prevent a pegged engine from turning the tires it sure as heck would have made it really hard to reach 120mph. I mean you would really have to try to reach that speed...and it would have taken quite a bit of time as well.

The tape recording of the 911 call is 50 seconds long and thats not including the time required for them to realize they were in a desparate situation, find a cell phone and then dial 911. Honestly I don't understand how anyone even someone crazy with fear, couldn't come up with turning off the car in over 50 seconds.

Five miles. They traveled five miles and didn't do anything accept apply brakes. Even at 120mph from the start the time alotted to reach 5 miles would have taken them 2 1/2 minutes.

This just dosent make sense.

+1

There is always turning off the car.

No, turning off the car was NOT an option. This is a "smart key" car - aka push button.

Its still possible to put the car in neutral tho. Also, the brakes WILL overpower the engine. This was a case of pure stupidity, IMO.

The car was traveling at 120 mph? Where in this scenario was the mindset of placing the car in neutral and pressing the emergency brake. that seemed like an option.

Yes, even though it's a sad tragedy, people should know that there are things that could have been done. A few things come to mind, including what you said 009.

Excuse my ignorance, but, is it possible to shut the engine off while in motion? I think that could have been another solution; they would have probably still crashed but at least they would have slowed down enough to survive <<<<---- please correct me if I'm wrong.

Yes the engine can be killed but you risk locking the steering column.

It's called "panic". Why do you think Navy Seals go through such heavy stress training? So that they don't panic when faced with an unexpected crisis. These poor people were clearly panicking and you can't blame them. Unless they were trained to think calmly under pressure, what we believe is the right thing to do is much more difficult when under pressure of certain death. When panicking, some people simply freeze and are unable to respond, period.

Yeah but, there is no key, you those fancy start/stop button ? Not everyone one know you need to hold them a few secs (like a computer) for the engine to sut down. The guy probably tried but didn't hold the button long enough.

If the car has been equipped with an old fashion key/starter, the whole family would be alive.

yep

Read the comments after the "Read Article" link. There are people saying this has happened to them before in Camry's and other Lexus vehicles. They were treated as if they did something wrong.

This is clearly a problem, and Toyota needs to jump on it. I find it fascinating about how this has generated zero national news coverage. If it were an Audi, or BMW, it would be on every single network.

I wonder how the ES will fare in Consumer Reports after this?

"CR no longer recommends the Lexus ES. Get a Camry instead."

Hantra said "Read the comments after the "Read Article" link. There are people saying this has happened to them before in Camry's and other Lexus vehicles. They were treated as if they did something wrong."

Does anyone reading this remember the "Audi unintended acceleration" issue, from decades ago. Scores of people had problems in which Audis unintentionally accelerated, like in this story. 60 Minutes painted Audi black. There was massive press coverage. After extensive studies by unbiased parties, they concluded the true culprit was "pedal misapplication" (their term!). This translates into a less euphemistic "driver error."

Did anyone read the article above?

"Plastic floor mats that were not the right size for the 2009 Lexus ES 350 "

Someone installed the wrong mats....end of story. There is no conspiracy!

I don't think it was the floor mat! I bet it was the drive by wire control!

Hope they'll start with you

Are you people serious? This sounds like this family was liquidated by someone, and blame the death on unfitted floor mat making the car go 120mph and the driver can't hit the brakes to stop it??? How idiots are the American people getting, to this level really???? I'm speechless!!!!

Actually my 2008 Camry SE V6 did the same thing about 4 months ago. It scared the crap out of me and it took all of 4 seconds for me to realize what was happening. But like one of the previous comments, I reached down and grabbed the mat off the accelerator. If that didn't work, I was going slamm on brakes and put the car in "N"

this happened to me too in a (then) new 2000 ford focus. but the cause was not mechanical like a floormat. it was a defective cruise control unit. which i was NOT EVEN USING at the time.

since i was only going about 40 mph, i was able to brake to a stop. i shut off the engine, and restarted, which apparently re-set things.

it happened again later, and i had to go to the dealer for a fix.


a coupla years ago, this also happened to my nephew on a freeway, in a buick. this time it was the throttle linkage which got stuck. he panicked (a new driver) but i had the presence of mind to tell him just get on the brakes harder. he did. but it did not fix the stuck throttle. brake fade impended.

so i next told him to shift to neutral. with no load the engine of course wound out. i then advised him to cut the ignition, and turn it back on just before the engine died, to avoid having to restart. he did that a few times until we were able to pull over to the break down lane.

Braking hard or using the ebrake at that speed while the accelerator is stuck could spin you out of control @120mph. Shifting to neutral would have been the best way to go. Also, if you hold the Start/Stop button for 3 seconds it will shut off the engine (this might also lock the steering wheel on the ES, not sure).

Is this the only way to turn it off?! The officer has borrowed the Lexus from a local dealer and was probably unfamiliar with that requirement. This is from the article referenced below:

The National Highway Transporatation Safety Administraton recall report from 2007 found some Lexus drivers with stuck accelerators tried to turn off the car with the engine control button but didn't know the button must be held for three seconds.

Looks like the brakes failed after long application to overcome engine. Here is a good summary of what happened including 911 call transcript asking to turn car off...

http://www.sandiego6.com/news/local/story/Santee-CHP-officer-Saylor-killed-Lexus-accelerator/AzYjOhtvFE2mIuxTtxrK4Q.cspx

I now agent 009 loves to bash Toyota/Lexus, but this is just tragic, very sad. Agent 009 has no credibility.

BTW , ES has a hook on the floor to keep mats in place.

Dude, news is news. And if I had these mats I would want to know about it. I urge everyone to be respectful.

Yes, IF you were stupid and put the wrong mats in....you are right someone should tell you.

I agree with kpaxx. It is NOT the FLOORMAT.
It is the drive-by-wire system. Specifically, the pedal position sensor!
The sensor got stuck at certain value, causing the acceleration.
This has been reported on many Toyota/Lexus. They apparently used bad sensors for their vehicles. Toyota has been blaming the floormat. That is stupid. Try to put your floormat on the pedal. It does not put enough pressure on the pedal to cause 120mph acceleration! To reach 120mph, you have to "floor it"!. A floormat can't do that. Besides, some of the Toyota has suspending pedal, which the floormat can't even affect. Yet, it has similar problem reported.
This is a big issue Toyota is trying to stay in denial. Sad. So un-Toyota.

So un Toyota? Isn't this like the 5th or 6th issue they have had in the past six months where they knew about a problem but did not inform people? They need to stop wasting time trying to figure out how to make a supercar and get back to their appliances.

Rigid you are an idiot. This has nothing to do with a malfunction. As with the last spate of "camrys out of control" it has to do with people putting mats on top of mats without the hook to the floor installed. People get in and push the mat up. Then they hit the gas and wedge the mat into the accelerator/brake/clutch (pick one). The "RECALL" that was issued was to add a warning to the mats saying "DO NOT PUT ON TOP OF OTHER MATS etc" It has nothing to do with the drive by wire system (which wasn't even around during the lasts incidents). This whole article is based on human error installnig the mats. You need to stop drinking the coolaid and go back to internet porn.

Its about time that we "Audi" another car manufactuer!

(remember the Audi "unintended acceleration problem" that drove them out of the US market for 20 years?)

Lexus cars kill people?

I thought the brand was the second coming of Jesus?

all i have to say is nice quote agent 009, fits perfect with this post!

Very tragic accident! This is either a poorly designed pedal/car mat or a poorly designed electronic throttle control system.

The acc. pedal in my car has a protector under the pedal so items cannot get stuck underneath it or block it from going up.

This is just poor engineering on toyota part!

has nothing to do with engineering and everything to do with people putting mats in without anchors.

do floor mats need anchors? my car doesn't have them or suffer from this problem.

This is just so sad! This is where "over-engineering" from say Audi, or Merc., etc, could have saved these people. Japanese luxury brand's braking systems are just so weak. I'm not surprised the brakes failed. They're great for a few stops, but then fade very quickly. You all might remember the Audi Pres. who personally drove an Audi at high speed and while still flooring the car, he applied the brakes and still stop the vehicle. This was in response to the famous sudden acceleration issue years ago. I'm very surprised the officer didn't think to put the car in neutral, stress sure can be debilitating.

If it really was the mats (personally doubt it, as though a floor mat could apply that much pressure to wedge the gas fully open?) it would not have happened if the car had been designed to mitigate against this happening. A floor hinged gas pedal has less moment at the base, than one hinged from the top. My VW has a floor mounted hinged pedal (like a porsche 911) and also has large clips which go fully through the mats to prevent them ever from coming free.

The fact that a CHP driver couldn't bring the car to stop does not leave much hope for an ordinary driver. I'm sure he did everything he could to try and stop the car. It's quite possible that the tranny doesn't let you shift into neutral in case you over-rev that precious toy-lexus engine. What a pity the brakes couldn't save them.

Horrible accident and a reminder how ordinary good people are needlessly killed every single day. Condolences to the family and may they all RIP.

These floor mats were in a RECALL over a year ago. The new ones are designed to have a narrow lip that will not catch anything. If the dealer was using old floor mats, this is the dealer's fault for having them in their fleet of loaner cars.

the solution in these situations is SO SIMPLE, it's surprising there are people who do NOT utilize it: simply shift to NEUTRAL!

when the engine overrevs, kill the ignition for a while (see my post above). if you can't do this and the engine blows up, that is still far preferable to crashing.

At this point you don't really car about the engine blowing up...
Just put it in neutral, hold the brakes and the handbrake, try to avoid obstacles until the car stops.

yes but if you keep a cool head like i did, you DO NOT have to sacrifice the engine. also, an engine wildly revving could be unnerving to the driver and occupants.

(if i recall, my nephew was REALLY rattled, and actually it was i who reached over and cut the ignition, and knew just the right time to switch it back on. and repeat until he learned how to do it.)

People, I like to experiment with every car I own. The car could have easily stopped by just pressing on the brakes unless the car had over 600hp which in this case it sure didn't. Also, on my car I have to repeatidly press the on/off button about 3 times or so to get the engine turned off while the car is moving. The steering does not lock. It doesn't even loose power steering until after a good 10 seconds.

So this guy, while applying the brakes still was able to reach 120mph?? Yea okaaaaaay! Maybe if the car was a Buggati. How much did those floor mats weigh? 100lbs each to be able to floor the pedal that hard? Pleaseee!

The story sure doesn't make sense.

Maybe it was pursuing perfection a little to eagerly?

Another case of sticky floor mats? Another 120mph firey Lexus crash? hmmm
http://www.wreckedexotics.com/newphotos/bad/bad993.shtml

Way to pick specifically German cars in your examples to reflect your bias for Jap motors. I didn't even bother to look at them.

I am suggesting that I do not believe the mats were responsible for this accident, and found another example of similar crash with a Lexus going way to fast for the conditions and crashing and burning. (SUV doing 120mph, on a road with tunnels?) In light of this CA wreck, that SUV crash might be looked at in a new perspective.

Please contine to post other german wreck pics to 'defend' the Lexus and japanese brands beyond any point of reason.

i have a 1992 lexus my daughter was driving on the fwy when the gas pedal stooped working the car was still on but it wouldn't go when she pushed the car does anyone no what this could be and how much it would cost to fix it? it's been about 2 weeks if that we went to try and move the car or at least push it back in the drive way and it would not even go into neutral,we could not move it to any of the gears.she just bought this car she didn't even have it two weeks and now she has all these problems.can someone maybe just give me some ideas on what this could be please...it's automatic transmission a 1992 lexus i appreciate any kind of feed back ..thank u for ur time